Association of Sleep Disturbance With Catastrophizing and Knee Pain: Data From the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship between sleep disturbance, catastrophizing, and knee pain in middle‐aged and older individuals.MethodsData from the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort from months 48 to 96 were used, where month 48 was treated as baseline. Knee pain (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index pain scale score ≥5 [range 0–20]), catastrophizing (extracted from Coping Strategies Questionnaire score ≥3 [range 0–6]), and sleep quality (extracted from Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [range 1–4]) were assessed annually. We described the association of sleep disturbance with the presence and risk of knee pain and catastrophizing. The mediation effect of knee pain and catastrophizing on the sleep–catastrophizing and sleep–pain association was evaluated, respectively.ResultsCatastrophizing and knee pain were reported in 346 (10%) and 917 (24%) of the 3,813 participants (mean 64.9 years, 58% female) at baseline. Participants with worse sleep disturbance were more likely to have knee pain (prevalence ratio [PR] 1.4–2.0, P for trend <0.001) and catastrophizing (PR 1.4–3.1, P for trend <0.001). Sleep disturbance at baseline predicted the risk of knee pain (risk ratio [RR] 1.1, P for trend <0.001) and catastrophizing (RR 1.2–1.7, P for trend <0.001) during follow‐up. No statistically significant interactions between sleep disturbance and knee pain or catastrophizing were observed. Knee pain and catastrophizing mediated the sleep–catastrophizing and sleep–pain association, respectively, at baseline, and knee pain negatively mediated the sleep–catastrophizing association longitudinally.ConclusionSleep disturbance was associated with the presence and risk of catastrophizing and knee pain. Sleep interventions may have a universal and independent effect in preventing incident knee pain.